Taxpayers could pay Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn for work done outside of Wisconsin unless changes are made to how the state’s jobs agency issues tax credits, a state audit shows.

The Legislature’s Audit Bureau is recommending the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. make changes to its procedures to avoid awarding tax credits to Foxconn Technology Group for work that isn’t being done in the state.

The bureau’s audit released Wednesday shows the agency’s procedures don’t comply with the state’s contract with Foxconn and state law.

Nilay Patel: They’re moving people out of their homes, and they’re paying a lot of money — they’re paying $30,000 an acre — but they’re asking people to leave. There was one gentleman who was in a wheelchair, and he needed to make his new house accessible, and they won’t give him the money. And just listening to that, I was heartbroken.

Sruthi Pinnamaneni: Yeah. It’s so hard to imagine why the village decided to do it this way. In the negotiations with Foxconn, the parcel of land that they needed to get ready for Foxconn right away — so they gave themselves a deadline of August 1st. So by August 1st, they had to get about 60 homeowners off of this very large, almost two-square-mile area of land. And the way they did it was the village said, “Foxconn, you don’t need to go individually and do the buyouts and buy the land. We will do it for you.” In fact, the village is also paying for that land. They took out, I believe, over $100 million in loans just to pay for the land. So the village, your village, is paying a mortgage on land that they collected from their own residents, and gave — not sold, not rented — gave to Foxconn.